Through Dark Woods
by lazerbear7
Summary: While team RWBY is out on a mission, Ruby is given the task of patrolling the dark forest surrounding the team's camp. They don't know it, but something far worse than Grimm resides in those woods.
1. Chapter 1

Dried out underbrush cracked beneath the heel of Ruby's boots as she walked through the dark forest. Her flashlight did a moderately good job of casting the pervasive darkness aside, but she still felt uneasy about being out here. There was something else lurking in the shadows that her light didn't destroy, and it wasn't any Grimm. They would've attacked her by now. She wished that whatever was out there would come at her, and break the unbearable tension.

She held Crescent Rose over her shoulder, ready for action. The blade was freshly sharpened, and its scope had been calibrated as soon as she woke up. She had thought that their first extermination mission would be more exciting than this, simply patrolling around a dark forest. She was a stone's throw away from the camp, but still, she couldn't see the light of the fire or hear the sounds of her friends talking. It felt lonely out there, even with her beloved scythe. She continued walking on the thin path, her senses peaked, staying as aware as she could be to prevent being snuck up on.

She wished very dearly that Yang hadn't told them that story. She knew that it was just a story, but still, her mind was starting to shape the shadows around her into humanlike shapes.

She let out a deep breath. She was jittery, and needed to calm down. The importance of keeping a level head in all situations was something that was hammered into her at Beacon. She was excited because of the prospect of combat.

She thought that she heard something rustle behind her, and turned sharply, shining her light in the direction of the disturbance. No movement met her eyes, and she didn't see any indication that it wasn't just her imagination. She breathed a heavy sigh, and turned back to the light path that she was following. Perhaps she was a little more tired than she had thought. Her pace quickened back towards the camp. Her patrol was over anyways, and apparently she needed rest.

Another twig snapped beneath her feet, making her every hair stand up on end. Tall and narrow trees towered overhead, massive spires of wood that she could swear were watching her.

A horrible, harsh cackling sound erupted from the woods. Her body reacted automatically, raising Crescent Rose up and tracking for the source of the sound, but it seemed to be coming from every direction. Her eyes dashed from one shadow to another, trying to tell which ones were threats and which ones weren't. All of them seemed to be moving now, and she couldn't tell what was real or what was her imagination.

Her finger twitched on the trigger, just waiting for a positive target. She started to think that perhaps she was hallucinating all of this, before one of the shadows dashed towards her and struck her solidly in the center of the chest. She was knocked off her feet, and the air in her chest was driven from her lungs harder than it ever had been before. Whatever this thing was, it hit like an Ursa.

She twisted in mid-air, shunting her feet back onto solid ground before giving Crescent Rose a spin, landing its blade in the dirt, and taking aim through its scope. With a single discharge, the dark figure's head exploded, sending its corpse away from her like a ragdoll. It never hit the ground, though, as it dissolved into smoke before ever touching the forest floor again.

Ruby's eyes narrowed at the spot where it would've landed. There were no bones, no chunks, nothing. She knew that Grimm corpses degraded quickly, but she had never seen or heard of anything like that. The cackling sound was still present, echoing from every corner of the woods now, grating against her nerves like sandpaper.

Another figure, more definite than the last, emerged from the darkness, and she pointed her flashlight at it in an attempt to help her target the thing better. What she found startled her. The thing wasn't just dark, it was pitch-black. It was almost like the thing was without texture, seeming only to be a solid mass of darkness. It was charging towards her with incredible speed, limbs flailing wildly as it did so. Ruby only had a second to take in the thing's shape. It could only be described as vaguely humanoid, with a pair of extraordinarily long legs, stumpy arms, and a total lack of a neck. At the end of its stumpy little arms however, Ruby could make out distinct claws, fit to slice cleanly through flesh and bone alike.

Ruby was able to fire only a single shot at the thing before she would have to retreat, and the sudden panic of the situation, in combination with the beast's erratic movements, caused her aim to falter. The dust propelled round ripped through the beast's right shoulder easily, severing its arm at the base. The severed part was blown away from the body, soaring through the air in an arc before hitting the ground and starting to smoke.

The creature, for its part, seemed totally unaffected by the loss of its limb beyond the slight stumble brought on by the stopping power of the shot. It continued running towards her, movements even more wild now, as to keep its balance.

Ruby pulled Crescent Rose out of the ground as quickly as she could, and leaped back from the approaching threat as quickly as she could. It continued gaining ground, but now she had the advantage. She swept Crescent Rose across the space in front of her. As she did this, the thing moved into the space that she swung at, placing its legs directly in the blade's path. Even if the thing had tried to stop, it wouldn't have been able to. The sharpened blade of the scythe sliced smoothly through the flesh of the thing, and it toppled over onto the ground. The severed legs were thrown to the side, and just as before, the thing didn't stop its efforts.

Even a Grimm reacted to injuries, feeling pain. The monster in front of her, now pulling itself towards her with a single arm, didn't seem disturbed at all. As it continued to get closer, Ruby got another good look at it. It didn't seem to have any eyes, ears, or nose, but there was definitely a mouth. Hideously sharp teeth gnashed together in the dark pit that was its mouth, but no noise came from it other than the snap of fangs.

She was about to give her weapon another spin to bring the scythe into the creature for a killing blow when something slammed into her side. Her fingers instinctually tightened around her weapon, and she was flung through the air again. It was difficult to right herself this time. Before she was able to place her feet back down, the ground rushed up at her, and she hit it, skidding a good couple feet before her head collided with something solid, making her head spin and her vision darken.

Her eyes drifted closed for a brief second before her wits returned, and she spurred herself to action again. She got back up from the ground, and brought her weapon back to bear. The thing that had attacked her from behind was charging towards her, but she couldn't make out its features. For a brief moment she couldn't understand why, then she realized that her flashlight was gone. She had kept a hold of Crescent Rose, but the main source of light she'd had was gone. It must've slipped out of her hand. A stinging sensation in her arm attracted her attention for a moment, and she looked down at it, attempting to assess the damage.

It was dark, but it was not impossible to see. Moonlight was able to penetrate the foliage above, the treetops and vines, and it provided just enough illumination to see the wound. Though, the wound was just at the edge of where she could distinguish detail. If her eyes didn't lie to her, the wound was a single long gash, blood dripping off of her arm and onto the ground. It didn't seem too serious, but she knew that she had to tend to it fast. There was no doing that in the midst of combat, though. She gave the muscles a short experimental flex, feeling a sharp stab of pain.

She reminded herself that a beast was charging right for her, and her eyes flicked back up. She could barely see anything, but one thing that she could detect perfectly was a single eye moving towards her. It reflected the pale moonlight the same way a cat's eye did, hauntingly illuminating the single disk that surrounded the pit of darkness that was its pupil. The rest of its body was shrouded in shadow. She could see that it was there, and that it was moving, but no features were discernable.

The eye came within striking distance, and she knew that she had no other course of action. She swung the scythe, praying that the blade would make contact, and be lethal. In spite of the speed that she used in her strike, the eye moved faster, jerking to the side before disappearing, and reappearing on the other side of the blade. The part of Ruby's mind that still followed reason told her that the thing had probably blinked, but the more irrational part insisted that this thing could teleport, or something to that effect.

Either way, she knew that she had to get away from it. The swing had brought Crescent Rose to a position where the end of the barrel was facing away from her, and towards the thing. She didn't know if it would hit if she were to shoot, but that wouldn't matter. She could use the force of the shot to propel herself away from it, and return to a safer distance. She placed a foot on the head of the scythe at its base, just before the blade started, and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

Its effect was immediate, and her knee locked to keep her safely in place as she was blasted away. Also as a result of the shot, the muzzle flash briefly lit up the immediate area, the suddenness of the scene burning it into Ruby's eyes.

The thing had a somewhat bulbous head, its one cyclopean eye positioned at its center. A long neck supported this odd formation, and ended when it met with the torso. She saw that it had not two, but three arms, two high up, where they would normally be, and one longer arm that protruded from its back, reaching over the shoulders. The two "normal" arms had what looked like hands at the ends, how many fingers they had, Ruby didn't know. The third arm, however, terminated in a blade-like appendage that, in the brief light of the flash, less than half a second, moved at least four inches closer to her. Ruby was thankful to put any distance she could between her and that thing.

Her time in the air was short-lived however, and she collided with a tree that the darkness had kept from her view. Thankfully due to her position on her weapon, the impact didn't damage her, but it did shake her up significantly.

The mad cackling that had continued throughout this entire encounter seemed to pick up now, the individual laughs becoming more frequent and seemingly hysterical. It unsteadied Ruby as she listened to it, but it was too pervasive to block out.

The eye, still gleaming at her through the dark like the eye of a porcelain doll, was speeding towards her still. Ruby brought Crescent Rose to bear again, making sure that she wouldn't miss her mark this time. The eye got closer and closer, but when Ruby pulled the trigger, it disappeared altogether, the brief flash of light showing her its round head popping in a shower of brain matter and bone fragments. The thud of a body against the ground, just barely audible over the incessant cackling, made Ruby breathe a sigh of relief.

There was now only one of these hideous creatures left, and it was heavily crippled. It would just be a matter of finding the thing, then she would be able to safely return to camp. She could go now, but couldn't take the chance of letting that thing get away. She stopped moving, and knelt down to the ground. The cackling made it difficult to hear, but the beast was dragging its entire body across the ground, there was bound to be enough noise to detect it. She had just started to zero in on a location, maybe between ten and twenty feet to her right, when a devastating blow came from her left.

She heard the footsteps just before the strike landed, but there wasn't even enough time for her to stand up. The only thing that her body had time to do was to tighten its hold on Crescent Rose even further, ensuring that she wouldn't lose it. When the hit connected, Ruby felt knuckles against her cheekbone. Her head jolted to the side, and her body followed moments later. She thought for a brief moment that her neck had been broken, and that she was experiencing her final moments. She simply laid there on the ground, unable to feel anything.

Then her nerves slowly began to function again. She started to wriggle on the ground, trying to remember how it was that one might stand up. The rustling of leaves close by told her that she needed to hurry, but her brain was unable to go any faster. She had just started to shift her arms under her when another crippling blow landed in her gut.

Air was forced out of her body, and she felt her organs move to accommodate the fist now attempting to ram its way to her intestines. Consciousness started to slip away from her. Maybe she would pass out. Then she wouldn't have to feel any more pain, at least. She couldn't give up, though, she knew that. She had to keep fighting.

She pushed herself up from the ground, and started to run. It was obvious that whatever she was fighting was too much to take on her own. She had to get back to camp and seek the protection of her friends. It was all she could do now.

Before she was able to take more than three steps, another punch from the creature on the ground connected with her legs, knocking her down again. She wasn't only knocked off of her feet, however. Her ankle, planted firmly on the ground, as she had been mid-step, twisted further than her joint would allow, and broke with a loud 'snap'.

She would have screamed, if her diaphragm had been able to manage such a contraction. She went down hard, shoulder slamming into the ground hard. Tears started to flow from her eyes. She couldn't get away now. Not with as much damage as she had taken. She was doomed to die like this, beaten to death by things she couldn't even see.

Fists started to pound her, each one sending new waves of agony through her body. She'd thought that after a while the pain would have dulled, but she couldn't be more wrong. As her bones started to crack and break her nerves screamed at her to do something. She couldn't.

Eventually more hands then should've been started to hit her, and things other than fists started to beat her. Hooves bruised her, claws tore at her, and other things continued to bring her closer and closer to death.

Finally, just as her mind started to slip, overjoyed that the end to this torment would come, a voice somewhere in the darkness shouted "Ruby! Where are you?" Her sister, Yang, was out searching for her. Yang shouted again, but it was drowned out this time by the cackling. The sound seemed to come to a terrible crescendo, then Yang's voice cried even louder "Over there!"

The beating stopped, and Ruby opened her swollen eyes to reveal nothing but clouds of smoke where her vicious attackers had been. She now laid there, alone, her own blood mixing with the dirt and pooling around her. A few seconds later, a light fell on her, and another shrill cry of "Ruby!" rang out among the trees.

Ruby tried to stand up, but her muscles refused to cooperate, and her bones couldn't withstand the pressure. She only was able to make a few feeble movements, hardly noticeable. Yang's footsteps approached her quickly, and before she knew it, Yang was hovering over her, an immensely worried expression on her face. Ruby could hear Weiss and Blake nearby as well, but couldn't see them. She could still hear the cackling, too, but it seemed to be fading away now. Everything else started to fade away too, and she started to lose consciousness. It was the best thing that she could do. If she didn't, she would only suffer more.

When her eyes cracked open again, she wished that they hadn't. Everything hurt.

She was a few feet away from a crackling fire, her friends encircling her with concerned expressions on their faces. Ruby tried again to get up, but her body was still as unwilling as it had been earlier. She wouldn't have been able to get up anyways, as Yang pushed her back down gently, tears coming to her eyes. "Ruby, don't get up. Just stay there. We patched you up as best as we could, and we're going to head back home as soon as the sun comes back up. Until then, we can't really give you anything for the pain. You're just going to have to bear with it. Can you do that?"

Ruby didn't try to respond with her mouth. Her tongue was swollen, and her jaw didn't feel like it worked very well anyways. Instead, she simply nodded, and laid back against the sleeping bag that she had been laid on. It was going to be a long night, but at least she wouldn't spend it alone.

Tears came to her eyes again, as she thought of the beasts she had fought out in the darkness. If she did dream, they would be nightmares, but at least Yang, Blake, and Weiss would not be too far away.

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Author's Note:

Another fun time from yours truly. As always I hope it was enjoyed, and please, for the love of god, leave a review.

If anyone cares about what spurred the writing of this cheery adventure, it was the line "You are surrounded by incessant cackling" from the game Dwarf Fortress.

This is intended as a one-shot, but I may be open to continuing it in the future.


	2. Chapter 2

Yang cursed herself for her inability to help Ruby when she had needed her the most, and for not believing that the stupid local legends weren't true. There was no way for her to have known, though, that those monsters were real.

Boogeymen, the old woman had called them, and she had sworn up and down that they were real. Yang hadn't believed her, of course, and dismissed it as just a crazy old woman. Supposedly attacking lone travelers, they were said to be things of pure shadow and hate. They weren't just Grimm feeding on or being attracted to negative emotion, they were hatred itself, given life. At least, that's what the woman had said. Yang had a hard time believing it then, and she had a hard time believing it now. It was simply too superstitious. Besides, she doubted that hate would have organs, blood, and all the other workings of a mortal creature.

Ruby had described her encounter between fits of sobbing by the campfire, and it had made her teammates' blood run cold. The speed and ferocity she described was frightening, and the appearance of the things were horrifying. Not the shadows that the woman had described, but no less dangerous.

On their way back through the town nearby, the woman had shaken her head sadly and walked back into her house. Yang hadn't been carrying Ruby at the time, which was a good thing, because she had felt fury she'd not known in a long time. It was misplaced, she knew that now, but she had blamed the woman for what had happened to Ruby. She had followed the woman into her house, and had started shouting at her.

The thought of what she'd done filled her with shame and embarrassment, and it was even worse that she had started to smash her house up. It had started by accident when she had put her fist through the wall, and escalated from there. She had smashed a few glasses and plates, overturned the refrigerator, and broke an ornate wooden table completely in half with a punch. She still had the marks on her knuckles from doing that.

It was only after Yang had threatened the woman's very life that Blake and Weiss had managed to pull her away. She'd kept screaming threats and insults like a maniac until the two had practically dragged her from the house. She had only stopped when she saw that they had to leave Ruby while they did that. Unconscious, on her back, in the dirt.

That had snapped her back to reality, and kept her in check the rest of the way. Now she sat by the side of Ruby's bed, unable to get the thoughts of doing that out of her mind. How could she have been so stupid?

She blinked, and looked back to Ruby's face. Her chest lifted and fell rhythmically, as she breathed in her sleep. It was good to see, especially after all that had happened last night. The doctors said that she was healing fast, as everyone with a strong aura did, but it would still take about a week to fully heal the damage that had been done.

A yawn snuck its way out of Yang's mouth, and she looked around the spacious room they were located in. The infirmary was empty except for the two sisters. No one else had been injured recently. For Beacon, it was a small miracle, but Yang felt that for Ruby it would be a curse. She dreaded the prospect of being alone, and this big room wasn't going to make it any better. Yang looked at the small clock next to Ruby's head, illuminated by the moonlight that was able to make its way through the windows, and saw that it was 2:47.

Her eyelids felt heavy, and she knew that she was going to fall asleep soon. Although she hated to do it, it was about time to leave Ruby. She stood from the rather uncomfortable chair that she had been in, and started to turn away. Just as she had started walking, something small and warm wrapped around her fingers, and Ruby's voice, as fragile and unsteady as it had been when she was only five years old, said, "Yang, please don't go."

Her heart broke in an instant, and her feet stopped. Then, barely thinking about it, she turned back around and sat, clasping her hands around Ruby's and putting her elbows up on the side of the bed. "I'm not going anywhere, Sis. Not this time."

She was still dressed in her full combat gear, and thus was still wearing Ember Celica, but she was sure to keep from doing anything even remotely close to triggering the weapons. Ruby looked comforted by this, and she smiled up at Yang before her eyes drifted closed again, and she drifted off back to sleep. Yang slowly bowed her head, resting it on the side of the bed, and felt herself falling to sleep as well. She hadn't slept since the incident, and it was taking its toll.

When she finally did join her sister in slumber, her dreams were troubled and full of terrible imagery. She dreamed of finding Ruby how she had, broken and beaten on the ground, and she dreamed of the things Ruby had rambled in her semi-conscious state, the terrible things that had happened. These dreams didn't last long, however, as she was thrown from one nightmare to another.

A sight-pitch scream split the quiet, and Yang jerked awake. The shattering of glass nearby drawing her eyes automatically to a point above her. The frame of a now shattered window stood in the wall like a wound, shards of glass falling down from it and clattering against the floor, pushed by the light breeze outside.

Any semblance of weariness was gone in the blink of an eye as Yang's heart pounded adrenalin throughout her body. She was fully awake in seconds, and her gaze went to the bed she had been sleeping on. Ruby was gone. That scream had definitely been hers.

Yang bounded after her sister, dreading the worst. Had the Boogeymen returned? She had no idea that they would follow Ruby. The old woman hadn't said anything about that.

There was a medical cabinet in front of the wall by the shattered window, and Yang bounded up the thing with a speed that she had never really gone before. It was reckless, but she launched herself out the window without seeing what was on the other side, her hands being sliced open by a few of the glass fragments that were left in the frame.

She was just about to align herself with the ground so that she could break her fall, when something very large and very hard swung from her left and collided with her, batting her though the air like a stone. She didn't waste the opportunity, though, and made sure to siphon the pain into her aura. Her shoulder hurt, but it also burned with a new kind of energy. She hit the wall, and made sure to soften the impact with her legs, before allowing herself to fall again. She met the ground with bent knees, and once landing looked around for her attacker.

There was nothing in the immediate area around her, which left her somewhat confused. It was only after hearing a soft grunting noise that Yang looked up at the wall she had just descended. There, plummeting towards her with a massive fist outstretched, was one of the ugliest things that she had ever seen. It was all black, and seemed entirely devoid of texture. Although light from the city made seeing at night on campus easy, she still couldn't quite tell what kind of a body it had.

As soon as her eyes fell on the thing, a mad cackling sound filled the air, just like Ruby had described. Yang felt a soul-piercing terror at this confirmation that they had, in fact, followed them. Wherever Ruby was, she was facing the same thing. She had to get to her sister, and she had to protect her.

The thing landed, and its massive fist hit the ground with such force that the pavement cracked and arched inward towards its fist.

Yang was knocked off her feet, the air forced from her lungs. She cried out as she thudded against the ground again, but couldn't hear herself over the laughter that surrounded her. She didn't let herself stay down, though, and practically forced her body to get back up. She probably wouldn't have been able to, if not for her semblance. Once back on her feet, she raised her fists, and got ready to fight. Her eyes fell again on the thing, and again she was taken aback by how it looked. It didn't stun her, though, like it had last time, and she quickly started into action. The thing seemed to be in the process of lifting its fist, roughly the size of Yang's torso, off the ground. She made a quick sidestep past it, and found its main body behind it. The arm that supported the hand was bulking and taut, but the rest of its body was spindly and weak looking. She quickly located what appeared to be its head, and launch a vicious punch of her own.

While her fist wasn't the size of her torso, she was still able to throw it with significant force. Her knuckles connected with the things skull, and she felt the crack of bone ripple up through her arm. The thing fell down, twitching, and she pulled her arm back, ready to throw another blow. While the thing wasn't dead, it still appeared to be alive, reaching towards her in slow, pathetic movements. She kicked it, aiming for the small protrusion that she thought of as a chin, and the thing's head snapped back, stopping completely.

A thick black smoke started to rise from the corpse, not unlike a Grimm's corpse did, and Yang looked away. A trail of blood was leading off into one of the larger courtyards, and Yang was sure that she knew the source of it. She still couldn't hear anything due to the laughing that still surrounded her, seeming to come from every crack and crevasse around her, but she didn't let that stop her from calling her sister's name. "Ruby! Ruby, I'm coming!"

Just as she started to sprint along the trail, the light around her died. It did not gradually fade away, but rather simply blinked away, as if it had never been there in the first place. Yang stopped. She looked around in the darkness, trying to get her eyes to adjust as quickly as they could. Until they did, she would be totally blind. The cackling around her didn't make it any easier, but she groped forwards in the dark, still trying to pursue her sister's trail.

As she slowly made her way forward, she started to her other things in the black. She was sure that footsteps were growing closer to her, but she couldn't see the source of the noise. She didn't want to delay any further, but she had to face the thing. Her hands shook, the preparedness to launch whatever attack she needed to coiled in her arms. A grimace spread across her face as she tried to see past the lack of light.

Moonlight was the only thing that she could hope to see by now, and a thin layer of clouds made it difficult to see anything by the dim light, but her pupils did start to grow, revealing silhouettes in the area around her. Most of them were buildings, but there were a few of what looked like moving figures. They shifted too rapidly for her to focus on any one, but she felt somewhat confident that they weren't coming towards her.

She shook her head, trying to focus herself. There was no time to worry about crap like that, she had to get to Ruby. She knelt down to the pavement, trying desperately to locate the trail of blood she'd seen before. The things that Ruby had said before about how horrible it had been to be attacked when she couldn't see anything, not even really able to make out anything about the attackers. Yang wished that she had a flashlight, or anything to make light. Suddenly, an idea occurred to her, and she pulled her scroll from her pocket.

She turned the device on, and held the screen away from her as she started to walk. Slowly, she located the trail, and started to follow it. If she was attacked while holding it, she would risk breaking the thing, and if not would be out a hand during the fight.

She walked as quickly as she could while still keeping track of the trail, feeling her skin prickle at every laugh. Her nerves were grating, and it was her instinct to turn and shout, and fight, and to tear them to shreds so that she could save her sister, but she had to suppress those feelings. They wouldn't help. Instead, she had to keep her nose to the ground like a dog, and follow the path.

It wasn't long before she started to pass figures in the dark or, at least, to think she did. Some were short, some were tall, some were lanky, some were bulking monstrosities. But all seemed to be watching her, whether they had eyes or not, they watched as she walked past. It was difficult for Yang to tell out of only the corners of her eyes, but they seemed like they were waiting for something, like dogs awaiting the call of their master. The whole situation filled Yang with unease, and she quickened her pace.

Finally, for a brief moment, the cackling that surrounded her broke, and she heard just a second of Ruby, crying and calling out for help. Then as soon as it had stopped, the laughter returned. Yang's vision was pulled up from the trail, and immediately went to the direction Ruby's voice had come from. Her quick and cautious walk turned into a full-blown sprint, and she raced her way through the dark, no longer caring to use her scroll for light. A few of the creatures appeared in her path, but she didn't care. She didn't even take the time to look at them, only to do whatever she needed to get them out of the way. She ducked under the legs of one, made a nimble sidestep around another, and finally landed a solid fist in one's face as she passed, knocking it to the ground.

It already felt like hours she had been traversing the dark, but when she saw what was unmistakably she shape of Ruby, crying on the ground, hardly moving. Yang ran even faster now, and skidded on her knees to meet her. As she came to her sister's side, she scooped her up in her arms, and clutched her tightly, tears starting to flow from her eyes. There was something very wrong. Beyond the laughing, and beyond the monsters. Ruby wasn't moving. She wasn't reaching for Yang like she had when she had been found in the forest, she was just limp. She only seemed to be moving because of the sobs that racked her body.

Yang's fists clutched shut, and her teeth gritted hard enough that she thought they might break. Those things, Boogeymen, or whatever they were, deserved to die. All of them. For what they had done to Ruby, and what they had tried to do to her. She set Ruby down on the ground carefully, not wanting to cause her any more pain then she was already in, and turned to face the darkness. The laughing seemed to intensify now, as if whatever invisible spectators were watching them only found things more and more hilarious.

One of the monsters dashed out of the dark at her, but she was ready for it. She jumped back, narrowly avoiding the razor sharp claws that went racing past her, and countered by leaping forward again, and landing a solid blow. The creature was knocked flat, and the area around it was briefly illuminated by the flash of Ember Celica. It was still the courtyard of Beacon, as alien as it seemed now. It also informed her of the nearest positions of the next ones, as well as providing some information on her next foes.

One was a large, squat, bloated thing, with two lopsided eyes in the center of its chest, and no head. The other was a tall, thin, and both of its arms ended in sharp blades made of the creature's bone. It had a head, but there were no organs readily visible. Both were moving towards her quickly, and she made a snap decision of which she would go after first.

She made a sweeping step towards the thin one, trying to get a punch off before the thing had a chance to hurt her. As her fist arced towards it, it moved its stick-like arms nearly too fast to see, bringing them up towards her belly. If the continued her offensive movement, it would stab her straight in the gut. She moved to the side, sacrificing the hit, but didn't move enough, and the blade raked across her flank, cutting deep. She winced in pain, but made sure to use the damage to her advantage.

Her aura started to glow around her, illuminating a small portion of the darkness around her, and her movements quickened. She jumped to the side, towards it, and her left fist connected with its head. Its light frame meant that it stumbled, but its skull was thicker than Yang had anticipated. Luckily, the molten glob of dust that was splattered across its head did more damage to it, burning away its flesh and making a thin layer of fat on the top boil. In spite of this, the thing recovered, catching its fall with its blade-arms, and pushing itself back up. The damage done didn't seem to impede it at all, and it came at her again.

It flailed its arms in a wild manner at her, but the uncoordinated patterns didn't make it any less deadly. She was forced to retreat, using her gauntlets to deflect the blows. She was pushed back almost to Ruby before she realized that the thing was not going to stop or tire. If there was going to be an opening, she had to make the opening. She started paying close attention to the arcs of the strikes, waiting for there to be a blind-spot. She could feel her aura cooling off again now, and knew that she had to hurry. The blades continued to swing, but on one particular downward swing, she saw her chance. She dashed forward, and placed one gauntlet between her and the blade. The weapon halted, and she brought her other gauntlet into the creature's midriff.

For how hard its skull was, Yang was surprised by the fragility of the rest of it. He hit something like ribs, which crumpled like aluminum foil under her blow, and the dust from Ember Celica tore through its flesh like a shotgun blast. She must have hit the thing's heart, because blood started to pour from the wound, but the thing wasn't dead yet. It made one final stab at her, using both its blades at once, and Yang was forced to jump back. She felt her feet touch Ruby's back, and cursed, knowing that she needed more room to fight the fatter one. It emerged from the darkness soon enough, and started to move towards her in an unearthly kind of way, much faster then something that large should've.

In the dark, Yang couldn't tell anything about it. She'd missed details when she first saw it, she was sure, but she didn't want to waste a round just to look at the thing. Instead, she readied herself to move however she needed to avoid getting hit, but if it would expose Ruby, she would stay like a wall.

The large thing brought two pudgy arms up, and it was clear that it intended to bowl her right over. Yang's eyes widened when she realized that there would not be enough time to move Ruby, and she instead braced herself for the blow. The meaty arms connected, and she was thrown off of her feet, knocked back ten feet.

She wasn't knocked high enough to realign herself before hitting the ground, and skidded several more feet away from her attacker. It had hit her arms, which were now pounding with pain, and she was starting to feel tired. She couldn't keep this up forever.

The fat thing started to approach again, but it was too far now to be seen. She couldn't see Ruby anymore, either. The darkness was too thick. She could hear, however, just over the constant cackling, Ruby give a small squeal, like something of great weight was being put on her. The mental image of the thing that Yang had just seen stepping in Ruby was too much.

She threw her arms out to her side, and unleashed a primal scream, comprised of nothing but rage. She didn't care if she got hurt anymore, or if she died, they weren't hurting Ruby anymore.

A bright yellow light exploded from within her, illuminating not just the area of the courtyard she was in, but the entire thing. It shone through windows, awakening those within, and even seemed to bake out all other colors. Her eyes turned a violent shade of red, and her body extended its limitations further than it ever had before. She couldn't hear the laughing now. She couldn't even hear herself screaming. All she could hear was the fire in her soul and the blood in her veins.

The thing was stepping on Ruby, but not for long. Yang streaked across the distance between them, and landed a punch so hard that she didn't even need to trigger Ember Celica. She hit the thing square in the stomach, and the force of the blow proved to be too much for its texture-less body. It exploded into gore, skin splitting and organs rupturing under the force of Yang's fist. It didn't die instantly, but Yang's second fist made sure it didn't have much longer, blowing a hole out of the opposite side.

Yang kicked the thing away, disgusted, and turned to face Ruby again. Still on the ground, still breathing. That was the limit of what her fury would allow her to see, as the pull to annihilate another of the beasts grew within her.

She turned and looked for another. A short little one, with a small, childlike body in everything except for its disproportionately long arms. Its face was disconcertingly doll-like, and the rest of its limbs were laughably small, but it moved with the same speed as all the others. It didn't last long, though, as Yang's foot arced towards it, and smashed into it full force, utterly destroying its front and sending it flying.

A vicious grin came across Yang's face as she started to enjoy the slaughter. She turned again, and saw another charging towards Ruby, dragging itself on the ground using two large arms with hoof-like appendages. Its body was strangely twisted, making it look very creepy as it approached her sister. Yang practically flew through the air towards it, and her feet reconnected with the ground a few inches away, her body skidding to a stop right next to it. She bent down and grabbed a fistful of flabby skin, and lifted the thing off of the ground. It made a few attempts to hit her, but what did connect did no damage. She was far too mad for that.

Her fingers tightened around the thing's throat, and out let out a few pathetic gasps as it tried to suck air through its ugly circular mouth, teeth trying to bite at her wrist. Her fingers grew even tighter, and the thing's struggles stopped. A few loud pops indicated what ultimate fate the creature had met, and its body went limp. Yang tossed the corpse aside, and it was starting to disintegrate before it even hit the ground.

Yang turned to find another opponent, and launched another attack before even waiting to see the traits or type of the Boogeyman. Before her devastating punch could land, though, and before she could make anything out of the silhouette, the creature disappeared in a brief puff of smoke. Yang looked around for where the fiend had gone, and soon realized that there were now no Boogeymen to be seen. Weiss and Blake were running towards her, concern on their faces, shouting something to her. She couldn't hear it, though, because of the burning that still filled her ears.

All enemies seeming to be gone, she stated to cool herself down. It was difficult to force herself down from such an anger high, but she managed, taking deep breaths and working her fingers. Slowly she came back to a state of general consciousness and reason. The burn faded, and she realized that the cackling had disappeared.

Weiss and Blake were still running towards her, but she didn't care about them at the moment. She needed to make sure that Ruby was alright. She turned away from her other friends, and ran back to the side of her sister. It was with panicked movements that Yang grabbed her sister's shoulders, and but her ear to her chest. There was a heartbeat, and she was breathing, but she appeared to have passed out. Yang pulled her into a tight hug, not wanting to let anything hurt her sister ever again. She didn't know how long she sat there, holding Ruby, and she didn't know how long other's tried to pull them apart. First it was Weiss, then Blake joined in, then other's from around the school. Eventually Yang felt the prick of a needle, and her veins started to run cold before her eyelids grew heavy, and everything faded to black.

When she opened her eyes again, she was in a bed, comfortable covers over her as she started to awaken. The first thing she felt was confusion, them a sudden sense of panic as she realized that she didn't know where she was. She jerked upright, and slid off of the bed onto her feet as a flustered looking nurse came into the small room that Yang was starting to recognize.

"Excuse me, but, uh, you're not supposed to…" Yang ignored the woman, walking towards the door. She still felt groggy, and more than a little dizzy, but she needed to see Ruby. She was a few inches taller than the nurse, so when she placed herself between Yang and the door, she realized that this was perhaps not the wisest course of action. Yang continued to approach the door, until a sudden tug on the crook of her elbow made her stop. An IV needle was placed in the vein, fastened with medical tape so that it wouldn't come loose.

With a single, very annoyed movement, Yang reached up, grabbed the clear tube attached to the needle, and tore it off. The tape hurt slightly coming off, but she ignored that too. The nurse gulped as Yang came almost nose to nose with her, and said down at her, voice low and nearly growling "Where's my sister?" Yang barely noticed it, but her hands had balled into fists, and she was more than ready to force her way through the door. The nurse must have seen this also, and stepped quietly to the side, pointing and looking down as she did so. Yang followed her finger, and pushed open the door to another medical room.

Ruby laying on the bed, eyes closed and breathing deeply, an IV in her arm just like one had been in Yang's. Yang closed the door behind her, and cast around the room for a brief instant before finding what she was looking for. A chair.

She grabbed the thing and scrapped it across the floor, bringing it to rest next to the bed. She wouldn't leave Ruby again. Even if she had to fight the doctors, she would stay right here.

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Author's Note:

So I didn't think I'd be doing a second, but here it is. Tell me what you thought of it, as always, as if you would like to see more, tell me that too. The entire reason a second chapter is here is because of that!

Also, if you have any suggestions as to what to do next, I'd love to hear them!


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